Three Leaf Clover Dinner Rolls

Three Leaf Clover Dinner Rolls is not their official name. I actually have no idea what they are really called. My mother made these rolls every Thanksgiving when I was growing up and my sisters and I LOVED eating the "Three Leaf Clovers". We actually fought over the rolls with four "Leaves".

Ingredients:
Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix
2 Tbsp Butter, melted
1 egg, beat
water
Crisco


Dissolve the yeast packet in 1 cup of hot water. Do not use boiling water. The water should be about 130°F. If it is boiling, it will kill the yeast and your rolls will not rise. In a large bowl, add the roll mix, 2 Tbsp melted butter, and one egg (beaten). Mix the ingredients and knead the dough until it is elastic. Spray the inside of your bowl with PAM (or grease with Crisco) and put the dough back in the bowl.



Cover with a towel. Allow dough to double in size.



Punch down dough and knead for a few minutes. Then halve the dough with your fingers until you have about 42 little bits of dough.




On a clean counter, smear a little Crisco on a circle. This will be the circle that you use to work your dough.




With the tips of your two pointer fingers, fold the dough over on itself a few times.




Then place the little ball of dough in a greased muffin pan.



Repeat about 42 more times, placing three balls in each muffin cup. If your dough balls are larger, you may only be able to fit two per cup. Sometimes I make the ball smaller, so that I can fit four balls in each cup...you know, you give my kids something to fight about.



Fork each ball with a kitchen fork. This allows the air to escape so you don't have pockets of air in your dinner rolls. (At this point, you can put your rolls in the refrigerator until later in the afternoon. They will not rise while in there.) Otherwise, allow the dinner rolls to rise a second time. They should be about a 1/2 inch above the muffin pan. The roll on the left is about right. The roll on the right rose a little too high.



Bake in a preheated oven, at 375°F for 15-20 minutes.



If they begin to brown too quickly on the top, you can place a sheet of aluminum foil (shiny side up) across the top of your rolls. You only need to worry about this last step if your oven runs "hot".